It’s no secret that many immigrants have a hard time in Germany. A new study has found that women wearing headscarves have a particularly hard time on the job market and a quarter of those with Turkish backgrounds face discrimination when looking for work.

It is early afternoon at Internet Treffpunkt, a convenience store in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood in Berlin that is home to many Turks and other minorities. Hedi Dashti, the store’s proprietor, is busy. One customer hands over her parcel to send through his DHL counter. Another customer buys cigarettes. The door swings open, ushering in the blustery winter wind, and a third customer waves hello.

By 2050, Europe will be unrecognizable. Instead of romantic cafes, Paris?s Boulevard Saint-Germain will be lined with halal butcheries and hookah bars; the street signs in Berlin will be written in Turkish. School-children from Oslo to Naples will read Quranic verses in class, and women will be veiled.

A French parliamentary committee recommended on Tuesday that the so called burqa, or Muslim full-body veil, be banned. While a burqa ban could check the spread of fundamentalism it is also humiliating for those affected by it, European commentators argue.

The for women degrading Burka could soon be banned in France after a French parliamentary committee recommended a partial ban on the wearing of what they call radical muslim black veils covering just about all of a woman’s body.

Are they just teething problems? Or is something more serious at stake? One way or another, the first signs are emerging that the European Union?s new foreign policy structures, established under the Lisbon treaty that came into force last month, are capable of producing just as much discord and disharmony as the old arrangements. Let?s take

This is the conclusion drawn – rather surprisingly – not by some bank analyst, or by a Credit Ratings Agency, but by the European Commission itself, according to the contents of a report ?leaked? to the German magazine Der Spiegel at the end of last week. ?(The imbalances) weaken trust in the euro and endanger the cohesion of the monetary union,?. Here is a rough translation of the Der Spiegel report:

US President Barack Obama’s initiative to introduce tougher regulation of big banks is being met with approval in several European countries. Obama’s plans will step up pressure on Europe’s banks, commentators write.

A recent legal paper by the European Central Bank deals with the subject: ?Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU: Some reflections?. It has received quite a bit of attention. Unsurprising, perhaps, given the state of the Greek economy (see here, here, and here for example).

Greece: European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said euro-region authorities will never again allow a country to join the monetary union if its fiscal data are inaccurate, as Greece?s were.

Reuters Jan Strupczewski gives more details of the EU Commission report first leaked by Der Spiegel. According to Strupczewski the ?new European Commission report has expressed concern about gaps in competitiveness that could undermine confidence in the euro zone and point to tensions related to wage levels and capital flows in the 16-member club?. The report was prepared for the finance ministers meeting on January 16.

The European Union is one of the principal international actors trying to alleviate the suffering caused by the natural disaster in Haiti. Humanitarian aid and assistance for long term development are needed from the more fortunate parts of humanity.